The Eye International Photography Festival 2012
David Hurn | Andy Rouse | Marco Longari
Front cover photograph Stephan Vanfleteren
The Eye International Photography Festival 2012
Welcome to the inaugural Eye International Photography Festival a jam packed weekend with leading UK and international photographers gathering in Aberystwyth for a programme of talks, discussions, interviews, portfolio reviews, films, videos and exhibitions. Leading UK and International photographers with talk about their work and experiences, with the line-up including celebrated Magnum photographer David Hurn; Eamonn McCabe, Guardian Picture Editor; multi award winning press photographer John Downing MBE FRPS; Panos Pictures photographers Abbie Traylor Smith and Chloe Dewe Mathews; award winning wildlife photographer Andy Rouse; photojournalist Marco Longari, Chief Photographer for AFP; Welsh documentary photographer Roger Tiley; Sean O'Hagan, the Guardian and Observer features writer; international celebrity portrait photographer Cambridge Jones and James Morris, documentary photographer They are joined by Sophie Batterbury, Picture Editor, The Independent on Sunday, Will Troughton, Image Curator at the National Library of Wales with the event compered by renowned picture editor and photojournalist Colin Jacobson. The Festival’s major exhibition is Call The World Brother showing work by Panos Pictures established and young contemporary documentary photographers including Chris Keulen, GMB Akash, Robin Hammond, Andrew McConnell, Stefan Vanfleteren, Martin Roemer and Espen Rasmussen. Panos Pictures, the photo agency, is celebrating 25 years in leading on global social issues. Other exhibitions include Africa by Glenn Edwards and work by Andy Rouse. We hope everyone will enjoy the opportunity to immerse themselves in photography for a weekend, here on the glorious mid-Wales coast. Glenn Edwards Festival Programme Curator Alan Hewson Aberystwyth Arts Centre Director
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Photographers Chloe Dewe Mathews Chloe Dewe Mathews is a freelance photographer based in London. After graduating in Fine Art at the Ruskin in Oxford, she worked in the commercial film industry. Both inspired and frustrated she turned to photography, as a more immediate and intimate creative process. Working with different people in their natural environment, enabled her to engage with the world more directly. Since dedicating herself to photography, her subject matter has been diverse, from Uzbek gravediggers on the Caspian coast, to Hasidic Jews on holiday in Wales. In 2010 she hitchhiked from China back to Britain, which became a recce for a lifetime`s work ahead. Her work has been exhibited in London, Berlin, Buenos Aires and Toronto and published in magazines including The New York Times, the Saturday Telegraph, the Sunday Times, Huck, IL Italy, Dazed and Confused and Harpers Bazaar. Chloe has recently been awarded the BJP International Photography Award, the Julia Margaret Cameron New Talent Award and the Flash Forward Emerging Photographer's Award by the Magenta Foundation. In 2011 she became the subject of a BBC Radio 4 documentary, "Picturing Britain", which followed her long-term project on the banger racing sub-culture. In June 2011, she was signed to the photo agency Panos Pictures; then, in November, her series Caspian, including images from Naftalan, won the 2011 international photography award run by the British Journal of Photography. www.chloedewemathews.com
Andy Rouse Andy Rouse is an inspirational wildlife photographer who is well known the world over. A unique and charismatic figure he is famed for his ability to capture moments from the lives of animals and birds in the wild from a different view point and often from his trade-mark stance, that of being "up close and personal" to some of the most fascinating and often potentially dangerous animals. Over recent years, Andy’s photographic style has been developing to be all encompassing of the animals and their environment in order to augment his passion for telling a story and to highlight the beauty of the natural world. Andy’s images have been acknowledged as being some of the best in the world for many years. He has won 8 awards in the past 6 years in the prestigious BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition is the current holder of the Gerald Durrell Award for Endangered Species and has just been awarded the Cherry Kearton Medal and Award for nature photography by the Royal Geographical Society. He has a Crackerjack pencil but still does not have a Blue Peter or a Tufty badge, although he is always hopeful. www.andyrouse.co.uk
Marco Longari Marco Longari graduated with Honours from the Istituto Superiore di Fotografia in Rome in 1999. He had started his career as a photojournalist the previous year covering the unrest in Kosovo. This work is collected in a book, "Nachbarn des Krieges" published by Styria of Austria. He moved to Africa at the beginning or the year 2000 where he started to freelance for AFP and for other major US and European publications. In 2002 his work on refugees is collected in the volume "Rifugiati" (Sossella) with a preface by the Dalai Lama. As Chief Photographer for AFP he served in Nairobi, coordinating the coverage of the Eastern African region and in Jerusalem where he is currently based, covering Israel and the Palestinian Territories. Over the course of his career he covered among other issues the Darfur crisis, the war in Georgia and the events of the Arab Spring. His work has been featured in several group and solo exhibitions.
Abbie Trayler Smith Abbie Trayler-Smith grew up in South Wales before moving to London to study law at Kings College. While studying, she began taking photographs for the student newspaper. Completely self-taught, Abbie began working regularly as a photographer for the Daily Telegraph in 1998 after graduation and was given a full time contract in 2001. She has completed a huge variety of assignments: from the final burial of Haile Selassie in Ethiopia to the forgotten war in Sudan, the famine crisis in Malawi and anniversaries in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii and the Falkland Islands. She covered the tsunami and re-visited Banda Aceh one year and five years on. She reported on the conflict in Darfur, Sudan with the veteran journalist Bill Deedes. She is a member of the Panos Photographic Agency. www.abbietraylersmith.com
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Cambridge Jones Welsh born British celebrity portrait photographer Cambridge Jones has built up a reputation for photographing the rich and famous. From Prime Ministers to pop stars, Jones` subjects cannot help but be striking, but his powerful images of them show us these well-known figures in a new light. His exhibitions have included The RADA Centenary Portraits, portraits of the great and good from British stage and screen include familiar faces such as Alan Rickman, Joan Collins, John Hurt and Anthony Hopkins. He cites Cecil Beaton and David Bailey as inspiration for his practice. 'Talking Pictures' his most recent exhibition portrays some of Wales's greatest names Michael Sheen, former Python Terry Jones; actors Damian Lewis, Jonathan Pryce; Sian Phillips, Matthew Rhys, Ioan Gruffudd author Jan Morris; singers Shirley Bassey, Bonnie Tyler, and Cerys Matthews; Welsh bands Stereophonics; opera Singers Bryn Terfel, and Katherine Jenkins. Cambridge Jones has been described as 'Britain's answer to Annie Leibovitz'. Notable commissions include work for RADA (The Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts), Prince Charles` charity The Prince`s Trust, The BBC, Nelson Mandela, London 2012 (Olympics Committee), Mayor of London Boris Johnson, and Christ Church Oxford. In 2009 he was made an ambassador to The Prince's Trust. www.cambridgejones.com
John Downing MBE FRPS Born in Llanelli South Wales John began his career as an apprentice photographic printer for the Daily Mail 1956-61. He worked for The Express as a freelance from 1962-64 then staff photographer 1964-2001, becoming chief photographer 1985-2001; and continuing as freelance ever since. He has covered most major wars, including Vietnam, East Pakistan/Bangladesh, Rhodesia, Beirut, Iraq, Smalia, Rwanda, Croatia, and over a dozen visits to Bosnia. Lived rough for many weeks with Guerilla fighters in Sudan, Nicaragua, and three times in Afghanistan. Hitch-hiked on lorries along the "Road of Death" across Central America. Beaten and imprisoned in Uganda by Idi Amin in what the Daily Express described on its front page headline as "World exclusive pictures" taken inside the black hole of Kampala. He was present inside the Grand Hotel, Brighton, when the IRA bomb resulting in further world exclusive photographs. He was a founder of the Press Photographers' Association and was president until 1986. Just some of his awards include Rothman's British Press Pictures of the Year 1971; Ilford British Press Photographer of the Year 1977, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1984, 1988 and 1989; IPC British Press Photographer of the Year 1977 and 1980 ; UN Photography Gold Medal 1978; Photokina Gold Medal 1978; Martini Royal Newspaper Photographer of the Year 1990; Kodak Feature Photographer of the Year 1992/93; La Nacion (Argentina) International Photographer of the Year 1994-95; overall winner of the British Airways London Eye Photography Competition 2001; and British Picture Editors' Guild Lifetime Achievement Award 2001. He was honoured with an MBE for "Services to journalism" in 1992 and was made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society in 2011. http://www.johndowning.co.uk
Roger Tiley A Welsh documentary photographer. His work on documenting the coal mines of Wales and America has been used extensively in publications specifically during the miners strike of 1984-5. He first worked as an industrial photographer and then studied at the School of Documentary Photography under Magnum Photographer David Hurn. He has worked for national newspapers and magazines, including The Times, Sunday Times, The Guardian and The Observer. Since the 1980s, Tiley has concentrated on working on commissions for exhibitions, archive collections, television and book publication in the U.K., Europe and the U.S.A. and is the author of three books. Because of his work on the miners strike, he was commissioned to produce 'The Valleys Project' one of his best collections of photographs reflecting life in the South Wales Valleys. They are meticulously annotated and encompass every part of the miners lives. Other commissions include photographing the Welsh descendants living in Pennsylvania and covering extensively the mining communities of West Virginia, Kentucky, Virginia, and Tennessee. Roger has recently been awarded a major commission to photograph the manufactured coast-scape in Wales and will travel the length and breadth of Wales to record the way the coast line has been adapted to cater for twenty first century needs. www.rogertileyphoto.com
David Hurn Born in the UK but of Welsh descent, David Hurn is a self-taught photographer who began his career in 1955 as an assistant at the Reflex Agency. While a freelance photographer, he gained his reputation with his reportage of the 1956 Hungarian revolution and was invited to become a full member of Magnum Photos in 1967. In 1973 he set up the famous School of Documentary Photography in Newport, Wales, and has been in demand throughout the world to teach workshops. He has written: "Life as it unfolds in front of the camera is full of such complexity, wonder and surprise that I find it unnecessary to create new realities. There is more pleasure, for me, in things as they are." He suggests that two of his major influences for attempting to be a better photographer are good shoes and looking at other peoples pictures. At the Festival he will chat about both. David Hurn has a longstanding international reputation as one of Britain's leading reportage photographers. He continues to live and work in Wales.
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Eamonn McCabe Eamonn McCabe started off photographing for local papers before freelancing for The Guardian and other national titles. He joined The Observer in 1976 and won Sports Photographer of The Year a record four times, covering three Olympics. In 1985 he was named News Photographer of The Year for his work at The Heysel Stadium disaster. In 1988 he joined The Guardian as Picture Editor, winning Picture Editor of the year a record six times. In 2001 he returned to freelancing, photographing mainly people in the arts for The Guardian but also other newspapers and magazines. Has produced several books on photography and is a Fellow of The Royal Photographic Society and at The National Museum of Film, Photography and TV. He holds an Hon. Prof at Thames Valley University, and Hon. Doctorates at the University of East Anglia and Staffordshire University. Eamonn appears regularly on radio and TV talking about photography and has exhibited widely in Britain. He has several pieces of work in The National Portrait Gallery collection, London.
James Morris James Morris studied history at university and went on to teach himself photography and film making as a means, initially, to travel and explore. For many years his principle focus was on architecture and the built environment, photographing both contemporary and historic buildings and working with some of the worlds most prominent architects. Along side he developed a practice looking more broadly at the impact of human intervention and presence in the landscape, with an interest in what can be understood from observing it. He has commented that ‘by observing landscapes, meaningful and expressive storylines are revealed that help understand something of a place and its people, it past as well as its present’. By photographing specific landscapes he aims to distill the stories that are expressed there. In addition to numerous architectural books, in 2004 he published Butabu with Princeton Architectural Press, an exploration of the unique vernacular landscape of West Africa, and 2010 A Landscape of Wales with Dewi Lewis Publishing. His work has been recognised through awards from, amongst others, D&AD, the Arts Council of Wales, The Graham Foundation for Fine Arts and the EU. He exhibits internationally and his work is in many private and public collections. www.jamesmorris.info
Presenters Sophie Batterbury Sophie Batterbury is Picture Editor of The Independent on Sunday. Her career in photojournalism began in The Independent darkroom in 1989, where a keen interest in photography became the passion that it is today. Since then she has had various roles across both Independent titles either side of a short stint at a celebrity agency. She is a contributing editor of ei8ht magazine and on the board of the Young Photographers Alliance.
Colin Jacobson Colin Jacobson is a picture editor and photojournalism lecturer. He began his illustrious photographic career as a picture researcher with the Sunday Times Magazine in the early 70s. He went on to work as a picture editor for several national publications including The Economist, The Observer Magazine and The Independent Magazine. Leaving full-time journalism in 1995, he became a visiting lecturer and a senior research fellow at the Centre for Journalism Studies at Cardiff University. Colin has been on the jury of the World Press Photo Contest four times, including twice as chairman. In conjunction with the British Council and Reuter Foundation, Colin has participated in photojournalism workshops worldwide. He was the founder and editor of Reportage, a quarterly magazine of international photojournalism, which subsequently went online as an internet publication. In 2002, he edited the book, Underexposed, which highlighted aspects of censorship, propaganda and spin in photography. He has also curated exhibitions at the Guardian Newsroom, the Getty Gallery in London and the University of Westminster. In 2008, he edited the book, Beyond the Moment: Irish Photojournalism in Our Time. Colin is currently Senior Lecturer in Photojournalism at the University of Westminster in London.
Sean O'Hagan Sean O'Hagan writes about photography for the Guardian and the Observer and is also a general feature writer. He has interviewed many of the world's leading photographers including Robert Frank, William Eggleston, Josef Koudelka and Stephen Shore. He was named 'Interviewer of the Year' in the British Press Awards in 2003 for his profiles of footballer Roy Keane and musician Brian Wilson, among others. He is the winner of the 2011 J Dudley Johnston award from the Royal Photographic Society "for major achievement in the field of photographic criticism" for his writing in the Observer and the Guardian.
Will Troughton Will Troughton was educated at Ardwyn Grammar and Penglais Schools in Aberystwyth and at the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne. For the last twenty years, following careers in teaching and finance, he has worked with the National Collection of Welsh Photographs at the National Library of Wales. He is now Visual Images Librarian and shortly to be re-designated Curator. Locally he is known for a number of books on local history and has also written articles on subjects as diverse as postcards of colonial India, maritime history and of course photography.
Africa Exhibition Glenn Edwards Photographer Glenn Edwards` first introduction to Africa came in 1993 covering the Somali Famine for The Independent. Since then he has made over 80 trips to 18 African countries such as Namibia, Gambia, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Kenya, Malawi and Sierra Leone, as well as undertaking commissions in India, South America, the Middle East and troubled European countries such as Albania and Bosnia. This exhibition shows many facets of the Africa he has come to know; a vibrant but troubled continent of extremes. He was UK News Photographer of the Year in 1998.
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Works by Panos Pictures Photographers GMB Akash Chloe Dewe Mathews Robin Hammond Chris Keulen Andrew McConnell Espen Rasmussen Martin Roemers Stephan Vanfleteren
Call the World Brother This exhibition coincides with The Eye, Aberystwyth Arts Centre’s first International Photography Festival and celebrates 25 years of Panos. Panos Pictures is a photo agency which specialises in global social issues, respected for its integrity and its willingness to pursue stories beyond the media agenda. The exhibition takes the theme of endurance, in many forms, and the photographic stories told include a tiny country threatened by rising sea levels; child labour in India; architectural remnants of the Cold War; injustices experienced by the Saharawi people; the aftermath of the Kashmir earthquake; a gruelling Eritrean cycle race; Hasidic holiday in Aberystwyth and portraits of the weather beaten fishermen of the dwindling Belgian fleet. “The men who learn endurance, are they who call the whole world brother.” Charles Dickens
GMB Gash | Chloe dewe Mathews | Robin Hammond
GMB Akash: Born to work “To abolish child labour you first have to make it visible. Child labour has been forbidden in Bangladesh since 1992. 13 years later I visited a garment factory in Narayanganj, which is the centre of the country's textile industry. I took a picture of the owner beating a 12-year-old boy because he had been too slow sewing T-shirts. According to UNICEF, more than 7.4 million children are engaged in economic activity in Bangladesh. With my work I want to confront people with the issue - Bangladeshis as well as people in the West where products produced by children are sold.”
Chloe Dewe Mathews: Hasidic Holiday For over 20 years, British orthodox Jews have been holidaying in Aberystwyth for two weeks every summer. Each family rents a small house in the empty student accommodation on the hill and a large yellow and white striped tent is erected on the campus as a temporary synagogue. They arrive in large groups, followed by huge removal lorries, bringing all their possessions from home including children’s bikes, cookers and fridges full of food. Around a thousand people make the trip each year and although the majority of families come from North London, there are many others from further afield - from Manchester, continental Europe, Jerusalem and New York.
Robin Hammond: Tuvalu sunset By the end of the century the oceans could be one metre or more above their current levels; the impact of rising seas and the increase in extreme weather events can already be seen in Tuvalu. It is one of 22 Pacific island nations with 7 million inhabitants between them that contribute only 0.06% of global greenhouse gas emissions but are three times more vulnerable to climate change than countries in the North. At the primary school in Funafuti, children are taught about climate change from the age of six. They are also learning what it means to emigrate, because this could be the last generation of children to grow up in Tuvalu.
Martin Roemers | Chris Keulen | Stephan Vanfleteren
Martin Roemers: Relics of the cold war For many years, Martin Roemers has been photographing the abandoned and guilty landscapes of the Cold War in Europe including its old bunkers, air-raid shelters, barracks, weapons, airfields, training grounds and nuclear missile silos. All wars leave their traces, and not only in the form of cemeteries where lines of the fallen lie in their thousands. Each war generates its own defence system; new weapons are invented that lead to new strategies and new fear. Once peace has been declared, we are confronted by the sheer plethora of material remains: the defunct weaponry, the defensive works and secret vaults. As peacetime progresses, the remnants of war begin to acquire a new and different value.
Chris Keulen: Giro d'Eritrea Eritrea's passion for cycling is one of many lasting influences of Italian colonial rule. The country's first multi-day cycle race was staged in 1946, although locals were not allowed to enter. The Giro was resurrected fifty-five years later, a symbol of the new-found confidence of a nation which had finally achieved its independence in 1991. Africa's oldest cycle race is a far cry from the televised sporting extravaganzas that we're used to seeing on TV, but a live telecast almost seems unnecessary as the roads are packed with spectators. The event is a huge celebration in a country whose repressive regime gives its people little to cheer about.
Stephan Vanfleteren: Fish heads In 1950, the Belgian fishing fleet consisted of 457 boats; by 1980, it was just 208. Nowadays, there are 115 boats, spread over three fishing ports: Nieuwpoort, Ostend and Zeebrugge. As a boy living on the coast, Stephan Vanfleteren remembers the comings and goings of ships leaving port along the harbour channel, the quays lined with boats, barrels of fish in the fish market and the fishermen's pubs packed with burly men with tattoos and empty glasses on the bar. Now there are, all told, eight fishing boats in Nieuwpoort and one small remaining fishermen's bar, t'Schipje (The Little Ship). The fishing boats have been replaced by yachts, the fishermen by tourists.
Espen Rasmussen | Andrew McConnell
Espen Rasmussen: The survivors The earthquake in Kashmir on October 8th 2005 killed more than 73,000 people, and up to five million lost their homes. Three months after the massive quake, the survivors were struggling to stay alive in the cold weather. Millions were living in tents which were not designed to cope with the extreme temperatures, and in the ruins of the city of Balakot, workers were still trying to clear away the remains. In 2007, Espen Rasmussen won a World Press Photo award for his story on the earthquake survivors in Balakot, shot in early 2006.
Andrew McConnell: The Last Colony A former Spanish colony, Western Sahara is Africa’s last open file at the United Nations Decolonization Committee; the Saharawi people have been involved in a decades-long dispute for independence. Morocco invaded the territory in 1975, forcing the Spanish to withdraw; Spain divided the land between Morocco and Mauritania. A Saharawi rebel group, the Polisario Front, began a guerrilla war against the new occupiers with the backing of Algeria, and forced the withdrawal of Mauritania in 1979. In the 1980s, Morocco built a 2,700-kilometer-long sand barrier and planted it with mines, dividing Western Sahara in two. Most Saharawi live in the inland desert behind this barrier, or in refugee camps in Algeria.
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International Photography Festival
Fri 29 June - Sun 1 July 2012
Programme Sessions throughout weekend are chaired by Colin Jacobsen
Friday 29th June 7.15-8.15pm
Welcome and Exhibition reception David Alston Director of Arts, Arts Council of Wales
8.15-9.15 pm
David Hurn Magnum photographer
9.15...
Meet the photographers
Saturday 30th June 9.30-10.30 am
Sophie Batterbury & David Hurn Free Individual Portfolio Reviews
10.45-11.45 am
Eamonn McCabe Photographer and Guardian Picture Editor 1988- 2001
12.00-1.00 pm
Cambridge Jones Portrait Photographer
1.00-2.15 pm
Lunch
2.15-3.15 pm
Roger Tiley Documentary Photographer
3.30-4.30 pm
Andy Rouse Wildlife Photographer
4.45-5.45 pm
Will Troughton National Library of Wales Photography Archive
5.30-6.30pm
James Morris Documentary Photographer
4.45-5.45 pm
Sophie Batterbury & Eamonn McCabe Free Individual Portfolio Reviews
6.00-6.30 pm
Sophie Batterbury & David Hurn Picture Editors Q and A
Throughout the day pinhole and photogram workshops 6.30 pm
Henri Cartier Bresson film 'The Impassioned Eye' screened in the Arts Centre's cinema
Sunday 1st July 10.30-11.30am
Chloe Dewe Mathews Documentary Photographer
11.45-12.45 am
Marco Longari Photojournalist
12.45-1.45 pm
Lunch
1.45-2.45 pm
Abbie Trayler Smith Documentary Photographer
3.00-4.00 pm
John Downing Press Photographer
4.00-5.00 pm
Closing Session discussion Sean O'Hagan and speakers
Thanks to Arts Council of Wales for financial support. Panos Pictures for their support with the Call the World Brother exhibition. Hungry Eye for media support.
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Aberystwyth, Wales Fri 29 June - Sun 1 July 2012 Aberystwyth Arts Centre Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Aberystwyth University, Penglais, Aberystwyth. SY23 3DE ISBN 978-1-908992-02 Design Stephen Paul Dale Design spdale@live.com